Foreigner mails back stolen pieces of ancient Ayutthaya temple

[Jonathan Fairfield]

Foreigner mails back stolen pieces of ancient Ayutthaya temple

 

 

A foreigner has sent three small pieces from an ancient Ayutthaya temple back to Thailand from abroad, along with a note asking officials to put them back as the thief “could not live in peace”, an official said on Saturday.

 

Panupong Paengkul, an official of the Ayutthaya office of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, said he returned the three small concrete pieces to the Wat Mahatthat Temple on Saturday as they were believed to come from that ancient temple from the Ayutthaya capital era. 

 

Panupong said the parcel has been mailed from abroad to the TAT head office with a hand-written note in Thai saying: “Please kindly return these three pieces to any temple in Ayutthaya. The person who took these away could not live in peace. Please return them to the owner.” 

 

 

Panupong said it was not the first time that foreign tourists had returned pieces stolen from Ayutthaya historical sites. He said several European and Asian tourists have mailed stolen pieces to TAT’s head office to be returned to the sites. 

 

Some had even returned them in person. Panupong said the tourists had declined to recount details of their initial theft but apologised and promised never again to steal from historical sites.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/breakingnews/30337887

 

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-02-03

[Misterwhisper]

I've never understood why people steal pieces of ancient temples, churches, castles, Roman, Greek or Egyptian structures, etc. home as souvenirs. It's sheer vandalism and shows blatant disregard for the historical heritage of mankind. And what are they going to do with a lump of rock of no particular shape or distinction anyway? Proudly display it on the mantle piece? Make it a conversation piece? "Look what I've brought back from my Thailand vacation, a rock!"

[Darcula]

Good thing he didn't mail them back in December, otherwise some poor postman's kids would've got rocks for christmas.

[bluesofa]

The only thing I ever took home was a piece of the Berlin Wall in 1990, but I doubt that could be considered particularly "historical", especially as a lot of it was seen as rubbish, perhaps used as hardcore for foundations somewhere else?

 

[Misterwhisper]

1 hour ago, bluesofa said:

The only thing I ever took home was a piece of the Berlin Wall in 1990, but I doubt that could be considered particularly "historical", especially as a lot of it was seen as rubbish, perhaps used as hardcore for foundations somewhere else?

 

At least you helped preserve part of the wall as most of it was dismantled and used as landfill anyway.

[Misterwhisper]

1 hour ago, Darcula said:

Good thing he didn't mail them back in December, otherwise some poor postman's kids would've got rocks for christmas.

"Yippieh, thank you, daddy! A rock!" Somehow reminds me of that Peanuts episode where Charlie Brown's friends always found candies in their Halloween bags while all Charlie ever got was rocks.

[PETERTHEEATER]

Weird how some people get their rocks off.....

[anon789561]

4 hours ago, bluesofa said:

The only thing I ever took home was a piece of the Berlin Wall in 1990, but I doubt that could be considered particularly "historical", especially as a lot of it was seen as rubbish, perhaps used as hardcore for foundations somewhere else?

 

i  have a brick on a bit of wood with barbed wire around it painted black that was a gift to my old man in his army days. sat on my shelf right here. i was born in berlin. i also have pics of me before and after checkpoint charlie. just woken up so if that makes no sense i apologize

[Jeremy50]

Not exactly the Elgin Marbles are they?

[maxcorrigan]

I heard that if all the bricks that supposedly were from the St Valentines day massacre in Chicago and were sold as souvenirs, were returned, there would be enough bricks to build President Trump's Mexican wall.

[Catoni]

1 hour ago, maxcorrigan said:

I heard that if all the bricks that supposedly were from the St Valentines day massacre in Chicago and were sold as souvenirs, were returned, there would be enough bricks to build President Trump's Mexican wall.

The wall.    

Though the original hit occurred at a warehouse at the corner of Dickens and Clark in Lincoln Park, Chicago, the wall against which this heinous act was carried out has had an interesting life of its own.  It was marked as a bad luck omen, and the building was eventually demolished. A Canadian businessman by the name of George Patey snatched up the bricks, hoping to create some sort of money-producing spectacle with them by displaying them in a restaurant or club. Having difficulty selling the morbid novelty idea to business partners, and after years of unsuccessfully trying to turn his ownership of them into a quick buck, he resorted to auctioning them off brick by brick to crime history enthusiasts, who took about 100 of them off of his hands. 

When Patey died, the remaining bullet hole-dimpled bricks found a home, someplace they could truly be appreciated – The Mob Museum in Vegas, a three-story museum that covers the entire history of the mob in great detail and was happy to acquire the wall, reassemble it, and display it, complete with an accompanying film and some quick dabs of pinkish-red paint for maximum dramatic effect. The wall is now just one of many authentic artifacts on display depicting the history of one of America’s greatest organized crime institutions to date.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/st-valentines-day-massacre-wall

[bluesofa]

3 hours ago, Happy enough said:

i  have a brick on a bit of wood with barbed wire around it painted black that was a gift to my old man in his army days. sat on my shelf right here. i was born in berlin. i also have pics of me before and after checkpoint charlie. just woken up so if that makes no sense i apologize

I know I started the OT part by mentioning the Berlin wall. I hope it will be OK with the mods, I'm posting some photos from the day of removal of Charlie Checkpoint.

 

One close-up of Checkpoint Charlie the day before its removal.

There are two photos where you can see the overhead crane ready to lift Checkpoint Charlie out (see the date on the photo - 22-06-1990).

All the people immediately in front of the checkpoint were the world's press waiting for the best photo - hence I was a lot further back!

Sadly I didn't get one of the checkpoint in mid-air - too many people jostling for their own photos.

One photo of someone chipping away for their own souvenir.

Edited February 4, 2018 by bluesofa

[lamyai3]

8 hours ago, bluesofa said:

The only thing I ever took home was a piece of the Berlin Wall in 1990, but I doubt that could be considered particularly "historical", especially as a lot of it was seen as rubbish, perhaps used as hardcore for foundations somewhere else?

 

I have a piece of this too, I was over there shortly after it came down when Roger Waters did The Wall concert there. I have quite a cool piece with a slash of blue graffiti on it. 

[speedtripler]

I bet a Farang didn't steal it

[Fish Head Soup]

11 hours ago, bluesofa said:

The only thing I ever took home was a piece of the Berlin Wall in 1990, but I doubt that could be considered particularly "historical", especially as a lot of it was seen as rubbish, perhaps used as hardcore for foundations somewhere else?

 

There are a chunk of the Berlin wall in downtown Seoul, there used to be a couple of pieces in Singapore next to Bedok reservoir but they had disappeared last time I was down there.

 

 

[Catoni]

13 hours ago, Father Fintan Stack said:

The temple and said stolen artifacts are not 'ancient'. The temple was built in the 14th century.

 

The pyramids are ancient. Stonehenge is ancient. The Classical ancient history period ended in 610 AD with the rise of Islam. 

    Technically, you are quite correct.   Perhaps they could use the terms, "antique and sacred" to get the meaning across.